jbrandon
Aug 31, 2006, 01:47 PM
Wow, what a morning! Decided to fly this morning at a new field here in town. I have installed a new Stylus in my Spirit 100 Poly and wanted to get it trimmed.
Last night put the batteries on charge and this morning loaded up the truck and off to the new field. I had never flown at this field and have never seen anyone there either. Checked with Google Earth to make sure I was the required 5 miles from any other known flying site, I was that and a little.
Tossed the Spirit and it nosed up and almost arrowed into the ground. Adjusted the trim (electronically) and tossed again, this time it did arrow into the ground and broke a wing bolt. Adjusted the trim and tossed, flew nice and level.
Set up the winch to about 500 feet (field is can handle up to 900 feet). Launched and flew a couple of big circles to get the lay of the field, landed out by the chute.
Launched again and decided I needed to take out a little nose weight.
Launched again and let the plane fly itself to see what it wanted to do, looked around for some lift, found some nice gentle lift over a parking lot and worked that for about 10 minutes.
Landed and had a cup of coffee. By this time I have an audience! I’ve got three cop cars, two city park workers, three working types playing hooky from work, and two mothers with kids! Got the usual questions, How do you get it up, what makes it fly, how much does it cost, did you build it, what’s that thing on the ground (winch), etc…
Launched the fourth time and got a very good launch. Started looking around and found a boomer, skied out, specked out! You all know the feeling. I'm flying with spoilers part open and I think I'm still going up! To shorting this story a little I landed 2 hours and 6 minutes later never being lower than launch height the entire flight.
Now the bummer part. That was my 2 hour flight for Level V of LSF but no LSF member present! Bummer, but what a great day of flying!
Last night put the batteries on charge and this morning loaded up the truck and off to the new field. I had never flown at this field and have never seen anyone there either. Checked with Google Earth to make sure I was the required 5 miles from any other known flying site, I was that and a little.
Tossed the Spirit and it nosed up and almost arrowed into the ground. Adjusted the trim (electronically) and tossed again, this time it did arrow into the ground and broke a wing bolt. Adjusted the trim and tossed, flew nice and level.
Set up the winch to about 500 feet (field is can handle up to 900 feet). Launched and flew a couple of big circles to get the lay of the field, landed out by the chute.
Launched again and decided I needed to take out a little nose weight.
Launched again and let the plane fly itself to see what it wanted to do, looked around for some lift, found some nice gentle lift over a parking lot and worked that for about 10 minutes.
Landed and had a cup of coffee. By this time I have an audience! I’ve got three cop cars, two city park workers, three working types playing hooky from work, and two mothers with kids! Got the usual questions, How do you get it up, what makes it fly, how much does it cost, did you build it, what’s that thing on the ground (winch), etc…
Launched the fourth time and got a very good launch. Started looking around and found a boomer, skied out, specked out! You all know the feeling. I'm flying with spoilers part open and I think I'm still going up! To shorting this story a little I landed 2 hours and 6 minutes later never being lower than launch height the entire flight.
Now the bummer part. That was my 2 hour flight for Level V of LSF but no LSF member present! Bummer, but what a great day of flying!